UNDP and the UN

UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific works closely with the regional offices of the other UN agencies, playing a critical role in the UN coordination at the regional level.

UNDP’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific serves as the Chair of Regional United Nations Development Group Asia-Pacific Team (UNDG A-P), as the UN Assistant Secretary-General in charge of the region. Also, UNDP Deputy Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific represents UNDP in this UN Development Group, and thus UNDP has been playing significant roles in the successful functioning of this regional team of the UN agencies.

The UNDG A-P is one of the six Regional UNDGs. The team has evolved into one of the most inclusive Regional UNDGs since 2008. As of July 2013, the UNDG A-P has 23 members — mostly Regional Directors — from 19 regional agencies, funds and programmes, and regional commission as follows:

The main objective of the UNDG A-P is to provide well-coordinated support to and oversight of UN’s country level operational activities led by the UN Resident Coordinators (RCs) and Country Teams (UNCTs) to help achieve national development goals including the Millennium Development Goals. The UNDG’s key functions include:

Ensuring coherence of technical support to Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams;

Quality support and advice of UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and other UN Programme;

Performance management of RCs and UNCTs towards ensuring UN coherence at country levels; and

Trouble shooting in difficult country situations.

The UNDG A-P has established inter-agency thematic working groups and task teams on various topics as follows, which are aimed at developing strategic regional position papers and providing coordinate inputs to the RC/UNCTs in addressing key development challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. UNDP has been involved with many of these joint initiatives.